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Sir Robert McAlpine has been dropped from two major developments, including a flagship 拢100m Land Securities scheme in central London.

Land Securities has replaced McAlpine with Mace on its Park House project on Oxford Street, where McAlpine was appointed as main contractor just over a year ago. The decision came after the developer changed its procurement route from design and build to construction management to cut costs.

It is also understood that McAlpine has been the victim of cost cutting on a 拢140m retail development in Newport, south Wales. It is understood that developer Modus is rebidding the project as a management contract, thereby taking on more risk itself and reducing the money it will pay to the contractor.

Steve McGuckin, Land Securities鈥� development director, said of the Oxford Street scheme: 鈥淭o do design and build in London you have to pay a high premium, and the risk was just too high for us. Construction management isn鈥檛 Sir Robert McAlpine鈥檚 core expertise, so we made an educated decision as a client. We鈥檒l still work with them, and it hasn鈥檛 damaged our relationship.鈥�

Park House, a mixed-use scheme designed by Hamilton Associates, is due for completion in 2010. The project involves replacing a sixties office block with a development that includes 9,300m2 of retail space, 15,300m2 of offices and 39 flats. It has just started enabling works.

A spokesperson for McAlpine confirmed that it was no longer working on Park House or the Newport project. He said: 鈥淚n London, the client decided to go down the construction management route, and there鈥檚 nothing more to it than that. In Newport, it was simply because we couldn鈥檛 agree on a price. We had a price we thought was fair, but in the end it didn鈥檛 work out.鈥�

It is understood that Mace is on the verge of two other significant contract appointments in the capital. Sources close to the Shard, at London Bridge, said that the 拢350m Sellar Properties development was 鈥渙n the brink of securing funding鈥� this week. He said Mace would be appointed to built it on a fixed-price contract 鈥渋mminently鈥�.

It is understood that Laing O鈥橰ourke, which was approached by Sellar when Mace was offering to build the scheme only as a construction management job, will not have a role.

Mace is also on the verge of being appointed to build the 拢130m extension to the Tate Modern, known as Tate 2, designed by Herzog & de Meuron.

Mace declined to comment.